


Mystery or Madness

by ramonaspeaks



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, One Shot, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 23:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2559932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramonaspeaks/pseuds/ramonaspeaks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan doesn't believe in the supernatural. It's not like ghosts or demons are <em>actually</em> real. So he's not scared. There's just something about this guy he just met that makes him... curious. </p>
<p>He's still going to kill his friends for dragging him to a Murder Mystery Theater and then ditching him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mystery or Madness

There had only been five words on the ticket that Dan had purchased for Murder Mystery Theater. “ _Dress warm. Bring a torch.”_ Just two simple instructions, but he was starting to feel like he’d failed at both of them. _  
_  
There were no lights along the dusty path winding up the steep hill to the mansion, so Dan turned on his phone to illuminate the bricks beneath his feet. It wasn’t quite bright enough for him to see all of the roots that had weathered their way through the broken stones over the years. _  
  
_He looked ahead at where Chris and PJ were holding _actual_ torches, casting yellow cones of light in front of them. He shivered and pulled the sleeves of his hoodie down over his hands. _  
  
_ "We’ll stick together, yeah?" Dan asked. _  
  
_Chris turned his head back for a moment. “Of course.” _  
  
_"Don’t worry. It’s going to be fun." PJ began walking backwards and waved his torch at him.  
  
Dan squinted into the light. “Don’t do that. You’ll trip.” _  
  
_PJ laughed and turned back around, picking up where his conversation with Chris had left off. _  
  
_Dan looked ahead at the other people who were making their way to the gray stone mansion looming in front of them. It was an odd mix. There were some people dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns, but Dan was relieved to see that others were wearing jeans like him. _  
  
_When they finally got to the entrance, Dan took a deep breath and looked behind him. There were no lights to signal that more people were on the way. The three of them made up the end of the queue. Dan ran a hand over the marble lion statue that guarded the front doors. It was so _fancy_ here. At least, it had been at one time. The mansion was beautiful but it had obviously fallen into disrepair. The stones were cracked, the hedges untrimmed, the fountains drained of water and discolored from lack of use. _  
  
Perfect for a haunted house,_ Dan thought with a shudder. _  
  
_The doors opened and a large man with a beard ushered them inside the foyer. His eyes were red-rimmed, probably due to the glass of wine that he was holding, and he spoke in a booming American accent. _  
  
_"Come in, come in. My name is Rusty and I’m your host for this night of mystery and magic." Rusty punctuated his words with a long sip from his glass. "Tickets out. Put all personal belongings in one of the bags. They’ll be returned at the end of the evening." _  
  
_PJ held up his camera. “Are we allowed to record or take pictures?” _  
  
_"No spoiling the magic for others." Rusty pulled the camera from his hand and dropped it into the bag. He put his hands on Chris and PJ’s shoulders and gave them a small shove towards the hallway to their left. "Head that way. Cocktail hour has already started." _  
  
_Dan held out his ticket and tried to follow his friends, but Rusty stopped him. _  
  
_"Phone in the bag." _  
  
_"But it’s my torch." _  
  
_"You’re only allowed to take a real flashlight inside the mansion. Put your phone in the bag." _  
  
_"Wait—" Dan made a noise of protest as he took the phone from his hands. _  
  
_"You’ll manage without it." _  
  
_Dan sighed and turned to catch up with Chris and PJ, but Rusty grabbed his shoulders and nudged him toward the hallway on his right. “Not you. You’ll be going this way.” _  
  
_"But my friends went over there." Dan briefly considered calling out for them but it felt too childish. _  
  
_ Rusty laughed. “You’ve got to give yourself over to the magic, kid. This is a night of mystery. Someone could get _murdered_. It could be _you_.” _  
  
_Dan jumped as the front door suddenly closed. He felt a flutter of panic as he walked down the hall away from Chris and PJ. He wanted to kill them for not waiting to make sure he was behind them. _  
  
_"So much for sticking together," Dan muttered as he opened the door to the room at the end of the hallway. An ornate sign read _Ballroom._ Dan sighed as he shoved inside.   
  
—— _  
  
_Cocktail hour is dull if you don’t know anyone. Dan sipped slowly at his drink, not wanting his senses to be impaired for the evening, although most of the people around him were getting drunk. He stood near the door and surveyed the room. _  
  
_People were chatting, already throwing theories around even though the game hadn’t officially begun yet. Rusty’s booming voice had come out of the speakers earlier, explaining the rules and telling a ghost story about a woman who had been murdered here. Their goal was to look for clues in the mansion to find out who killed her. _  
  
_"Don’t rule out the paranormal," Rusty had warned. "Anything is possible tonight." _  
  
_Dan took another gulp of his cocktail. It was sweet and went down easily, so it was difficult to pace himself. He tried to keep alert, waiting for the doors to open so he could find Chris and PJ again. He didn’t care about the clues or the game, and he had no hope of being the one to solve the mystery. _  
  
_A loud peal of laughter made him tear his eyes from the door. He looked for the source of the noise and saw a group of smartly dressed men and women standing by the fireplace. _  
  
_ "…most suspicious of Rusty at this point." A woman held her glass out and waved it around a bit, impersonating their host. She sloshed wine on the man standing next to her and gasped. "Sorry! Phil, is it? So sorry, Phil." _  
  
_"No worries." He brushed his fingers lightly against the red that was staining his shirt and lowered his voice. "Now I look like a victim. No one will suspect me." _  
  
_The man named Phil was dressed in a form-fitting tuxedo and Dan moved closer to get a better look at his face, partially to stop himself from staring at how amazing he looked from behind. He leaned back against the beverage table and drained the rest of his drink. Phil had a nice face too. Dan let his eyes wander over the stranger, past the wine stain on his shirt and down his hips and legs. Phil had a nice _everything_ , Dan decided. _  
  
_Phil stopped talking then and glanced over at him with bright blue eyes that were amused. Dan looked down, embarrassed that he’d just been caught blatantly checking him out. He set his empty glass on the table just as the speaker on the wall crackled to life and Rusty’s voice roared out. _  
  
_"You may now begin exploring the mansion. Murder Mystery Theater has officially begun."  
  
—— _  
  
_Dan had reached in his pocket for his nonexistent phone at least ten times in the past half hour. He felt useless without it. He had no way to call Chris or PJ to find out what part of the mansion they were in and he wasn’t having any luck finding them on his own. _  
  
_He walked down the corridor of a wing on the third floor, quickening his pace when he heard a shriek come from a nearby room. His heart was racing from the tension of not knowing what was going to happen. This wasn’t the type of place where people would jump out and grab you, like at a haunted house. The scare tactics were sneakier than that, almost insidious. Music would start to play at random, nearly imperceptible, making you wonder if you actually heard it. Dolls would sit in the chairs around a table in the library and you’d only notice their eyes were missing when you stepped close to examine them. There were whispers that leaked out of bedrooms that turned out to be empty when you opened the door. _  
  
_Dan shuddered and turned a corner, entering the first door that he saw and shutting it behind him. He leaned his back against it and sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. _  
  
_"Hey." _  
  
_Dan’s eyes opened in shock. “Hi. Sorry. I didn’t know anyone was in here.” _  
  
_"Looking for clues?" Phil smiled at him. He was standing by a table, trying to unlock a drawer with a small key. _  
  
_"I guess." _  
  
_Phil gave up on the table and walked over to Dan. He tossed the key at him. “I found this downstairs but I can’t figure out what it opens. It’s engraved with the word _infirmary_ , so it should be something in this room, right?” _  
  
_ "Um, I don’t know." Dan looked over the small brass key in his hand. "I’m not very good at this game. What room is this?" _  
  
_"It used to be a sickroom." Phil pointed to the walls. "See? No windows anywhere. People would be kept in isolation here when they were ill to stop it from spreading." _  
  
_"Oh." Dan felt another shiver go through him. He really should have dressed warmer. _  
  
_ "My name is Phil by the way." _  
  
_"Yeah, um, mine is Dan." _  
  
_"You started in the ballroom too, right?" _  
  
_Dan nodded, hoping that Phil wasn’t thinking about the way he had stared at him. He ducked his head down to hide his embarrassment and walked over to a small desk on the opposite side of the room. He tried the key and almost jumped when he heard it click. _  
  
_"I found what the key opens." Dan pulled the drawer out and then started to close it in disappointment. "It’s just some photogr— _oh, fuck_.” _  
  
_ "What is it?" Phil sounded excited as he hurried over. _  
  
_Dan opened the drawer again, then closed it. “How— what’s happening?” _  
  
_The only thing in the drawer was an old black-and-white photograph of a family. At least, that’s what it was when you opened the drawer. When you started to close it, their faces morphed into demonic images. Dan looked up at Phil, horrified. _  
  
_"Dan, it’s just a holograph." Phil laughed and picked the picture up. He moved it back and forth, showing Dan how the image shifted. "It’s cool, isn’t it? I doubt it’s a clue though. Probably just a bit of fun thrown in. Too bad." _  
  
_ "Yeah. Fun."   
  
Dan took the photograph back as Phil walked across the room to open up a closet. He was about to set it back in the drawer when he noticed a piece of paper that had been hidden underneath the frame. He unfolded it so that he could read what was written inside. _  
  
Get out of the room. Don’t trust Phil.  
  
_ Dan’s stomach lurched. He quickly put the note back and slammed the drawer shut, reminding himself that none of this was real. If that was a clue, then it didn’t mean anything except that Phil was a _fictional_ murderer in a _game_ that they were playing. There was no reason for his heart to start racing. _  
  
_"Dan, come look at this!" Phil called. _  
  
_"Um, I might— I think I’m going to try downstairs now actually." Dan walked towards the door, not waiting for a response. _  
  
_He had only gotten a few steps before he heard a loud popping noise and suddenly all of the lights in the room went out. Dan let out a high-pitched cry as they were encased in darkness. _  
  
_"Not to worry," Rusty’s voice blared from the speakers. "We just blew a fuse. This is an old mansion. Everyone make your way downstairs to the library and we’ll start again in a moment." _  
  
_The room went silent. Dan fumbled in the darkness, accidentally knocking a lamp off the desk as he tried to make his way to the door.  
  
There was _no_ light in the room. He was shocked to find that it made absolutely no difference whether his eyes were open or shut, and then he remembered. They were in an old sickroom. There were no windows to let in even a glimmer of moonlight. Dan let out a small whimper as his knees knocked against something hard that he thought might be a chair. _  
  
_"Phil? Do you have a torch?" _  
  
_ "No." Phil’s voice sounded closer than he expected and Dan jerked backwards. "I was going to use my phone but they took it when I came in." _  
  
_"Me too." Dan’s voice was edged with hysteria. He kept moving until his back hit the wall. He pressed his palms flat against it and closed his eyes. The fact that he couldn’t see was less frightening if his eyes were closed. "How are we going to get out of here?" _  
  
_ "Hey, it’s okay. We’ll manage." _  
  
_ Dan jumped. Phil was standing directly in front of him now. How had he managed to get all the way across the room without bumping into anything? Dan tried to take a deep breath but he felt like he was being suffocated, like the darkness had sucked all of the air out of the room. _  
  
_"Um, Dan? Do you— I mean, are you having an anxiety attack?" Phil asked. He sounded nervous. _  
  
_"I don’t really know. I’ve never had one before." _  
  
_ Dan took another shaky breath. He was sure that he sounded pathetic but he was fighting back tears. He felt something grip his shoulders and cried out again. _  
  
_"It’s just me," Phil whispered. He tried to pull Dan away from the wall. "Just follow me. I’ll get us out of the room." _  
  
_Dan shook his head. “No.”  
  
“Listen to me, okay?” Phil squeezed Dan’s shoulders and then ran his hands up and down his arms soothingly. “I’m an actor. Everything that’s happening is planned. A fuse didn’t blow. They turned the lights off on purpose to scare people and to get everyone to come together. There’s no real danger.” _  
  
_ "You’re an actor?" _  
  
_ "There are a bunch of us. We pretend to be trying to solve the mystery, but we’re here to add excitement. I was supposed to scare you when the lights went off. I’m not going to do that, okay?" _  
  
_"Okay." Dan felt his breathing start to return to normal. He’d probably feel incredibly stupid later on but he could only feel relief for the moment. "So what now?"  
  
“Just follow me.” Phil let go of Dan and then reached down to find his hand. He locked their fingers and tried to pull Dan away from the wall again. This time, Dan moved willingly. _  
  
_ "What are they going to do next?" _  
  
_ "Um. We all get together in the library. Another actor will pretend to die and Rusty will say that the murderer struck again and then make everyone keep searching." Phil’s voice was soft as he led Dan towards the door. "I’ll stay with you though. No one else will try to scare you if you’re with me." _  
  
_Dan held tighter to Phil’s hand. They made their way across the room without tripping over anything and Dan breathed another sigh of relief when Phil finally opened the door. It wasn’t dark in the hall. The light of dozens of torches illuminated the corridor as people rushed down towards the stairwell. Phil led Dan into the crowd of people and then pushed him in front as they made their way one at a time down the narrow spiral staircase. _  
  
_"Are you still back there?" Dan asked, trying to look behind him. The surge of people pushed against his back, hurrying him along. "Phil?" _  
  
_Dan finally got to the bottom of the staircase, which ended directly in front of the library. He turned around to look behind him, hoping to see the same pair of friendly blue eyes that he’d caught earlier in the ballroom. There was only a sea of unknown faces looking back at him, laughing and giddy, all rushing into the library.  
  
Phil was gone.   
  
—— _  
  
_"There you are!" Chris shouted. He moved his torch to illuminate his face so that Dan could find him easily. "We looked everywhere for you." _  
  
_"Hey, guys." Dan tried to smile as he joined them but kept looking around the room distractedly. _  
  
_"Having fun, mate?" PJ asked. They were standing beside the table of dolls with missing eyes, grinning like mad. "We’ve already got a theory. After we leave here, you should come—" _  
  
_A few people shouted as the lights turned back on and then the room burst into thunderous applause. Rusty walked into the room and took a small bow. He was smiling, but his face was bright red and his eyes were shining. Dan couldn’t tell if he was drunk or pissed off. _  
  
_ Rusty tapped a microphone to get the room to quiet down and then began to speak. “All right, everyone. We fixed the problem. You have one hour left to solve the mystery and catch the murderer. I’ll announce over the loudspeaker when time is up and we’ll meet back here to end the evening together.” _  
  
_He clicked the microphone off and turned abruptly to leave the room. Dan’s stomach twisted. This wasn’t how Phil said things were going to go. No actor fell down. He looked around the room in a panic. Were there other actors in the room? There had to be. _  
  
_"I’ll be right back." _  
  
_"Dan, where are you going?" Chris asked. "We were going to head back to the master suite." _  
  
_ "I’ll meet you there!" Dan shouted behind him and rushed out of the room. _  
  
_ Rusty was heading back up the spiral staircase when Dan caught his arm. _  
  
_"What do you want?" _  
  
_"Um, just a moment." Dan tried to catch his breath because he wasn’t used to running. "Phil. I’m trying to find Phil." _  
  
_"Phil?" Rusty looked at him skeptically. "I remember everyone’s name. No one named Phil bought a ticket for tonight." _  
  
_"Right. Well, he’s one of the actors. I need to find him." Dan stared at Rusty’s blank expression. "He works for you?" _  
  
_"Look, kid. I don’t know anyone named Phil and I don’t hire actors." _  
  
_Rusty shrugged out of his grip and walked back up the stairs. Dan felt his stomach drop. Why would Phil lie to him? _  
_  
—— _  
  
_Dan took a deep breath as he opened the door to the sickroom. He made sure not to close it this time, just in case. It was the last place he could think to look. He’d spent the past hour scouring the mansion for any sign of Phil, rather than clues, and hadn’t found anything. _  
  
_ The room was empty but Dan had expected that. He was starting to wonder if he’d gone insane when the lights had gone off. Did Phil even exist? Other people had spoken to him during cocktail hour. Was he a ghost? He’d felt solid enough. Was he just some person making up a story for the evening? _  
  
_Dan pulled the small key out of his pocket and opened the desk drawer again. The picture was still there, right where he’d left it. He wanted to see the note about Phil again. He was going to bring it down to Rusty to show him that he wasn’t crazy. _  
  
_The images shifted again when Dan picked up the photograph, but that wasn’t what made him gasp. When he looked underneath, the piece of paper that he’d left there was gone. _  
  
_"Who could have taken it?" Dan murmured to himself as he felt tears burning at the corners of his eyes. "I’ve had the key with me all evening."  
  
—— _  
  
_The voice over the loudspeaker announced the time and drove everyone back into the library. Dan rushed over when he saw Chris and PJ waving at him. _  
  
_"You never met up with us!" PJ shouted in excitement. "I really think we’ve got it figured out." _  
  
_"That’s great." _  
  
_ "You all right?" Chris asked. _  
  
_Dan nodded. He was still looking around the room, almost out of habit. He’d lost hope of ever figuring out what the hell was going on. Maybe there had been hallucinogens in his cocktail. Maybe the mansion really was haunted. Suddenly his eyes stopped moving.  
  
At the back of the room, standing against the wall and looking down at his feet, there was a man with a red stain across his shirt. Dan’s heart pounded. It was Phil.   
  
Dan grabbed PJ’s arm. “Do you see him?” _  
  
_ "Who?" PJ looked at Dan in confusion. _  
  
_"Um. The guy over there. He’s in a tux with a wine stain on the front?" _  
  
_"Yeah, what about him?" PJ asked. _  
  
_"He’s cute," Chris said. _  
  
_"So you both see him?" Dan was frantic. Phil looked up then and Dan caught his eye for a moment, but then Phil turned his head back towards the floor with a sheepish expression. _  
  
_Chris and PJ nodded. _  
  
_ "Of course we do. He’s standing right there." _  
  
_"What the hell is going on, Dan?" _  
  
_"Nothing." Dan’s eyes dropped as he realized. It was a prank. Phil was just some creep trying to freak him out by making up stories and then disappearing on him. Well, it had worked. "I need to get some air." _  
  
_"But you’ll miss the big ending. If we’re right, we could win a prize." Chris clutched Dan’s wrist as he tried to walk away. _  
  
_"Let me know how it goes? I’m taking off." Dan walked out of the room. He felt like jerk, but he could explain later. _  
  
_Dan stopped by the registration table on his way out to collect his belongings. He started to feel normal again when he slid his phone into his pocket and exited the mansion. He walked down the winding path, breathing in the frigid air and holding his head back to look up at the stars.  
  
His mind finally cleared and he couldn’t help laughing at himself, clouds of vapor huffing out of his mouth. He didn’t even believe in ghosts, but put him in a dark room for five minutes and he’d turn into a quivering mess. _  
  
_ Dan’s laughter took on a bitter edge. It really was _funny_. He’d been running around an actual mansion, half-wondering if he’d just had an encounter with a supernatural spirit, when really it was some twat who wanted to fuck with his head. Just some _breathtakingly gorgeous_ twat. _  
  
_Dan scuffed his shoes along the trail and then felt his ears perk up when he heard footsteps behind him. _  
  
_"Wait, Dan." _  
  
_How was it possible that he could already tell it was Phil’s voice when they’d only met that evening? Dan paused on the path to let him catch up. _  
  
_ Phil walked towards him. “Are you okay?” _  
  
_"Fine." Dan turned to face him. "I’m better now that I’m not trapped in a haunted mansion looking for ghosts." _  
  
_ "I’m sorry for disappearing like that."   
  
Dan laughed. “Don’t be. It was a good prank.” _  
  
_"It- it wasn’t a prank." Phil’s face screwed up in confusion. "My boss overheard me talking to you when the lights went out. He pulled me aside before I could get down the stairs and made me wait in his office, then he just spent the last hour screaming at me. He said that I spoiled the illusion." _  
  
_"Rusty?" _  
  
_ Phil nodded. _  
  
_"So you’re really an actor then? Rusty lied to me because he wanted to scare me?" Dan asked. _  
  
_Phil nodded again. “Yeah, well. People pay to come here for us to scare them, confuse them, give them a little thrill. I wasn’t lying. And I wanted to stay with you. The only reason I let him pull me away was because I didn’t want to get fired.” _  
  
_"He almost _fired_ you? For _what_?” _  
  
_"Breaking the rules." Phil let out a nervous laugh. "I was supposed to scare you, like, when it went dark. We’re not allowed to break character. I just couldn’t do it." _  
  
_"Why not?" _  
  
_Phil bit his lip. “I just couldn’t. You sounded terrified… and, I don’t know, I liked you.” _  
  
_"You liked me?" Dan stared at his mouth, the way he nervously scraped his teeth against his bottom lip between words. _  
  
_"Yeah." Phil reached down for Dan’s hands, sliding their fingers together. "Maybe I even thought you liked me too?" _  
  
_Dan felt heat travel through his body at the feeling of Phil’s hands touching his own again, remembering how it had felt when Phil guided him out of the darkness. Rusty’s words from earlier came back to him. _Give yourself over to the magic, kid._ Dan blushed but he nodded his head slowly. _  
  
_ "I don’t usually spend hours searching for people that I dislike." _  
  
_"Okay." Phil smiled at him. "Well, maybe we could go out sometime." _  
  
_"Yeah. I mean, that could be good." Dan tried to sound confident but he was still blushing. "Just nothing scary." _  
  
_"I don’t want to scare you." _  
  
_Phil took a little breath and leaned forward, letting his lips brush against Dan’s mouth. The kiss was a gentle caress and then Phil pulled away with a grin that looked almost giddy. Dan squeezed his fingers, slightly baffled at this man who could turn from a sex god to an adorable goof in seconds. He pulled him closer and leaned in again. This kiss was not as careful and Dan felt his breathing become a bit ragged by the time he pulled away. _  
  
_"You don’t scare me. At least, not much." Dan smiled back at him and he could feel his heart beating in his throat.  
  
Phil was a mystery that he was willing to spend some time figuring out.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for Halloween 2013 on tumblr.


End file.
